You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time
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Since the dawn of humankind, there has been no more primal emotion than fear – and nothing more natural than humans trying to creep each other out. From eerie stories recited around campfires thousands of years ago, to high-definition horror movies in cinemas today, most people enjoy a good fright every now and then. Video games, with their higher level of interactivity, are arguably one of the best mediums for experiencing such frightening delights, and ever since that pair of disembodied eyes first ventured into Haunted House’s spooky mansion, video game developers have sought to chill and terrify gamers with the freakiest elements they can dream up. Join us this spooky season as we reveal the best horror video games to make your blood run cold.

By Graeme Mason

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth (Bethesda, 2005) – The works of author HP Lovecraft, specifically The Shadow over Innsmouth, form the basis for this macabre game where the protagonist’s fragile mental nature is as much a threat as his external enemies. Highly vulnerable to injury and frequently unarmed, and chased relentlessly throughout, Jack Walters is the unstable private detective hired to solve the case of a missing person. The barely concealed hostility of the Innsmouth residents, poisoned by a mysterious cult, sets the scene for a nerve-jangling journey of sheer terror, replete with unbelievable horrors and highly traumatic experiences. Should panic take hold of Jack, the screen blurs and the sound distorts, making the player almost question their own sanity… before the detective strangles himself in an insane rage.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Dead Space (Electronic Arts, 2008) – Inspired by space horror movies such as Alien and Event Horizon, Dead Space reinvigorated the action-horror genre back in 2008. Initially dubbed “Resident Evil 4 in Space”, the series became so much more than that, mixing a mysterious and powerful religion with an alien infection of the most bloody kind. Body horror is present from the beginning of Dead Space: misshapen creatures, the crew of the USG Ishimura, hunt the player throughout the game, their bones protruding at hideously unnatural angles. But it’s perhaps the quieter moments of Dead Space that hit home most severely. Thanks to clever sound design and visual effects, watching Isaac trudge throughout the hellish spaceship is an anxious experience even on those rare occasions when some sickening monstrosity is not assaulting him.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Project Firestart (Electronic Arts, 1989) – This Commodore 64 game is the oldest entry on this list, released towards the end of the ‘80s by a fledgling Electronic Arts. However, don’t let the lack of today’s high-fidelity graphics fool you – Project Firestart is an intense and horrific take on the sci-fi genre and a violent precursor to Dead Space. A research vessel orbiting Titan has gone silent, and it’s up to agent Jon Hawking of the United System States to discover what’s going on. Via revolutionary cinematics and cutscenes, Hawking quickly stumbles upon the shredded bodies of the crew as well as evidence of a DNA-splicing experiment gone disastrously wrong. Blending a slower pace with its sudden moments of extreme violence, Project Firestart belies its pixelated appearance by constantly shocking the player all the way to its dramatic denouement.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Slender: The Eight Pages (Parsec Productions, 2012) – Usually accompanied by a sheen of possible truth, folklore and urban legends have long served as a vehicle for horror stories. The Slender Man character is one such urban legend, having originated as an internet meme in the early aughts. A tall, featureless figure that stalks and abducts people in a relentless and unstoppable pursuit, he’s the perfect inspiration for a video game. In Slender: The Eight Pages, the player collects an octet of notes dotted around a bleak, dark forest. It sounds simple, but with just a flashlight for company, there is no defence against the lofty stalker other than running away. Accompanied by ominous Silent Hill-esque static noises, a slowly thickening forest and murky visuals, Slender: The Eight Pages is a pared-down experience of a pure and frightening nature.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Waxworks (Accolade, 1992) – While the eight-bit era of gaming managed to produce a few notable horror games – CRL’s grisly Jack The Ripper and Wolfman spring to mind – it wasn’t until the ‘90s, and the prevalence of the Commodore Amiga and its peers, that the imagery began to match the written word. Developed by a pre-Simon The Sorcerer Adventure Soft (under its previous name, Horror Soft), the premise of Waxworks gave the developer licence to present a series of grim scenarios, including the aforementioned Victorian mass murderer. Essentially a first-person dungeon crawler, the potent atmosphere of Waxworks and its lurid gore content successfully instils the morbid sense that a gruesome death is never very far away.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Project Zero/Fatal Frame (Koei Tecmo, 2001) – The director of Project Zero (known as Fatal Frame in its native Japan) was Makoto Shibata, whose desire to create a stripped-down horror game, inspired by J-horror movies and Konami’s Silent Hill, led to the first game in this famously creepy series. “Our task was to take it a step further and get players to feel things they couldn’t see on screen,” explained Shibata in 2013. More than any other game, Project Zero successfully evinces that feeling of there being something in the room, as its protagonist, a girl named Miku, explores the sprawling Himuro mansion in search of her brother. Inspired by Shibata’s dreams and perceived supernatural encounters, there’s a real discomforting edge to this superb survival horror.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games, 2010) – Amnesia takes the sanity mechanics of previous games and welds them to the ultimate creepy location: a dark and mysterious castle. As befits its title, the game’s protagonist can remember nothing beyond his name, Daniel, and his hometown, as he slowly uncovers the mysteries behind the castle and why he is being stalked by a demon known as the Shadow. Through frankly terrifying use of audio – such as footsteps echoing behind the player, emphasising the shadowing – Daniel frequently suffers mental gloom, with blurred visions and muddy sound causing the player to question their own senses. Unable to fight back, Daniel must remain hidden if he is to survive; but the darkness has peril for this amnesiac, thrusting him into insanity should he remain in the shadows for too long.

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Outlast (Red Barrels, 2013) – Outlast begins outside that most predictable of scary movie staples: the abandoned psychiatric hospital. The player is Miles Upshur, a journalist investigating the dilapidated institution and the rumours of inhumane experiments conducted within. Much of Outlast takes place in near-darkness – and in a brilliant gameplay mechanic, the only way Miles can see on these occasions is by using the night vision on his camcorder. With batteries in short supply, it’s a constant mission of scavenging for spares while stealthily avoiding the enemies, as he cannot attack or defend himself. Tight, taut and exceptionally tense, Outlast is a nerve-shredding battle for survival in video game form.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard VR (Capcom, 2017) – Capcom’s inspired reboot of its legendary Resident Evil series is fearsome enough. However, when appended to virtual reality, it becomes a genuinely intimidating experience, guaranteed to chill the frame of even the most hardened gamer. A fresh first-person perspective supports the move back to the franchise’s roots, as everyman Ethan Winters battles against the demonic Baker family. Like Dead Space, Resident Evil 7 uses outstanding environmental effects to creep out the player while its frantic stalking sequences never fail to get the pulse running.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time.
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Alien Isolation (Sega, 2014) – The perfect organism equals the perfect terror. The Alien series has instilled incessant dread since that first xenomorph burst from Kane’s stomach and prowled the USCSS Nostromo’s dark corridors. 2014’s Alien Isolation takes the alien story, much travelled and foolishly expanded since, right back to its core, featuring a lone creature stalking the daughter of the original film’s sole (human) survivor. Fear is manifested in Amanda Ripley’s lack of a meaningful defence throughout Alien Isolation. Even when she finally acquires a weapon of use – the flamethrower – it can only temporarily discourage the alien, and her motion detection device is as distressing as it is useful. The ability to maintain silence, observe situational cues and hide whenever the hairs prick up on the back of your neck are paramount in what is regarded as the most petrifying gaming experiences of all time.

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You’re Dead: The Best Horror Video Games Of All Time

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